Life after the newsfeed

So.. a few weeks ago I quite Facebook.  Cold Turkey.  Just did it.  I couldn't handle one more day devoured by that thing. In the beginning it was fun, it was neat to reconnect with people from my home town and see what they were up to.  But after a while - It became a gasoline for critiscm - of others and especially myself, and I just couldn't do it anymore.

In this social media society we are now in (like it or not), we've kind of become obsessed with comparison.  Comparing ourselves to others, our lives to theirs, our current selves to our old ones.  And it's not healthy.  The first thing we do when something amazing happens, ie: new job, engagment, etc - we post it (hey, it is an easy way to let a lot of people know at once).  We put it out there for others to know, but to some (and only some), it is put out there for others to be impressed by (whether we realize that part or not).  Others then compare their own state to your new one and compare. and criticize, i mean, comment. 

Many comments just never get posted.  Wouldn't it be great to hear the inner 'comments' of everyone's minds when they read what we are up to?  I would love to think it is all happiness, encouragment and well-wishes, oh I would really love for that to be true (if that were true I'd still be there), but it's not.  At least it wasn't for me and thus the need to log out.  Oh I sound like such a downer with all of this. 
I would find myself laying in bed, trying to distract myself from how bad i was feeling that day and find something to take my mind off of the pain, and just..well, facebook.  Just read. Just comment. Just criticize. Now yeah, comparing one bed-ridden self to the version that others hope they are portraying of themselves can be toxic.  It was. Not healthy.  If we were all brave enough to show our true colors out there, use it in extreme moderation, and generally feel better about ourselves and others afterwards I'd get off this little soap box and check my wall.  But I've never been good with the gray. Or with moderation.  So it looks like this is one black and white I needed to kick for good.

And rehab really isn't that bad.  It's actually pretty freeing.